A Chinese fisherman is recovering in hospital after being rescued from a trawler with an infected stingray bite.

The 20-year-old Chinese national was brought to the Island on Monday night after being taken off the Taiwanese-registered Hwa Shan Number 16.

The captain of the boat contacted Harbour Radio to ask for assistance and was met three miles off St. David's by the pilot boat, which had a doctor and interpreter on board.

When they arrived at the trawler, they found An Xiao in good spirits with a swollen, bandaged arm. He told the translator, who works in a restaurant on the Island, that he received the bite from a stingray on November 26.

The crew said they thought they had pulled the barb from the wound, but suspected a section had been left behind, causing the wound to become infected and to bleed.

Joe Simas, assistant manager of ship operations for the Meyer agency, said: "I think he received the bite while fishing a couple of weeks ago. They probably thought that if they pulled the barb out, he would be OK to carry on, but they think part of the barb is still in his arm, causing it to become infected.

"He looked OK when we got there and he was in quite good spirits, but obviously the wound needed to be looked at.

"The trawler offloaded the fisherman in Bermuda and then carried on. Hopefully, in three or four days, we will be able to repatriate him back to China, or back to St. Maarten, where the boat had left port five weeks ago."

The pilot boat took the injured fishermen to St. George's where an ambulance was waiting to take him to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, where he was being treated on a general ward last night and was described as stable.

It is not known where the boat was in relation to Bermuda when the 20-year-old, who is from Henan in China, was injured.

But the tuna fishing trawler, which had 28 people on board, is expected back into port in St. Maarten in about two months' time.